The Lady Demon basketball team won an exciting game Wednesday night at Stephen F. Austin and afterward, associate SID Matt Bonnette got further confirmation that head coach Jennifer Graf and staff stress NSU tradition in their program.
The team was obviously excited leaving the floor and heading into the lockerroom. Matt goes in with the team postgame so he can help get Coach Graf back out in time for her Demon Sports Network radio interview with Tony Taglavore. The routine once they make it to the lockerroom is she speaks to the team, they say a prayer, and it's time for the interview and any newspaper or TV interviews.
Sometimes players speak up before Coach Graf "circles 'em up" for the prayer. One Lady Demon newcomer did, and asked, since NSU beat SFA, "does this mean we get to take (Chief Caddo) back home?"
As you probably know, the biggest trophy in sports goes to the winner of the NSU-SFA football game each year. So no, the Chief isn't at stake for hoops.
But there nearly was a similiar trophy in this fantastic Lady Demon-Ladyjack rivalry. When James Smith was early in his tenure as NSU's head coach, and Gary Blair was at his peak at SFA, and the two were fast friends, the games had extra fun.
They each would take a quarter and put them at the scorebook, with the half-dollar going to the coach who kept his jacket on the longest. It never took a lot of time to settle that bet.
Blair and Smith talked about creating a knockoff of Chief Caddo, a female equivalent, to further spice up the NSU-SFA women's hoops rivalry -- not that it needed any added intensity. The idea never took root, though.
No comments:
Post a Comment